Letter: Liberals should love others

Editor,

I would like to respond to Leon D’Souza’s opinion column published in the Statesman Wednesday.

D’Souza once again displays a kind of hypocrisy that I often find in liberal commentary. While trying to make a point about how narrow-minded Mormons supposedly are, he himself gives one of the worst displays of narrow-mindedness that I have ever seen. He quotes a talk given by Boyd K. Packer in the last LDS General Conference and, rather than giving a real effort to understand the message, uses the quote to somehow support his preconceived notions about the Mormon viewpoint. He admits that he slept through much of the talk. But D’Souza does more than just misinterpret Packer’s words; using some strain of highly biased logic incomprehensible to me, he somehow derives from them the idea that Mormons consider all those not of their faith to be “spawn of Satan.”

Had anyone else performed a similar analysis of his beliefs, D’Souza no doubt would have used it as further material to rant and rave about in a future column.

Since D’Souza is obviously confused about the LDS belief system, allow me to state what Mormons really do believe.

We believe that all human beings are our brothers and sisters, created in the likeness of God. As such, we believe that we should treat them with love and a genuine concern for their well-being.

We believe that there are generous portions of good and truth to be found in all kinds of religions the world over. I recall a talk I heard recently in which an LDS leader expressed sincere gratitude to the leaders of other faiths for all the wholesome values that they teach to their congregations.

In short, we believe in loving others and in building them up. We do not believe in tearing down those of other religions. Perhaps this is where we differ with D’Souza.

Scott Stokes